The way we Listen

Most rock bands spent a lot of time designing logos that suits to their image. Some of theses symbols are now well-known trademarks. Why have they become so famous ? …because they are original, pioneering, shocking…

What I find more interesting is the level of importance that is focused on a logo. Some bands just print their name in a simple format, others like to spice up their name with crazy fonts and character shapes. And others use mysterious or glossy symbols that represent their spirit and their kind of music. Each of these famous (or less famous) logos has its own history, and this series of post will reveal secrets about where they come from and what does they mean.

Over the past decades, rock music has evolved a lot. Punk rock, hard rock, alternative rock, heavy metal, folk, progressive rock, “nu metal”, … However logos have always meant the same ideas and therefore a large amount of similarities can be found between old 70’s logos and fresh new logos.

1. The renowned ones

The Tongue and Lip Logo, The Rolling Stones

Some of these rock logos have become so famous that everyone instantly associate the logo with the music and the band, even if this logo is completely abstract and has nothing to do with the band’s name. For example, the Rolling Stones logo can be considered very strange… what does this have to do with rock music?

The famous “tongue and lip logo” was designed in 1971 by an art designer named John Pasche when he was a 25 years old student. Mick Jagger asked him to draw a logo for the band, based on a picture of hindu goddess Kali. Like said in this great article about rock logos, this artwork has every characteristic that makes it perfect : simple to remember, based on few colors, glossy and with round shapes… it represents what the band is about. To me, this is the real strength of this logo.

The Who

Let me now introduce two similar but incredibly famous logos : The Who and The Beatles. Both logos start with a simple written name… but the way the letters are displayed is now very typical.

70’s English rock band The Who made their famous logo designed in 1964 by Brian Pike, a philosopher-art painter. The band was about to play one of their debut concert in legendary venue “The Marquee”, London. The poster for this event is now a piece of collection that every rock fan must have

It is the perfect example of a simple written logo that, with few transformations, became so original and so recognizable. The letters “T” and “H” are tied together in order to create a cascade aspect. The up arrow on the “O” adds a positive ingredient on the final artwork.

The Drop-T Logo, The Beatles

The Beatles logo is tightly linked to Ringo Starr’s custom bass drum heads. It was designed when Ringo went to order his very first custom-made drum kit, with manager Brian Epstein.

The instructions given to drum store owner Ivon Arbiter were to print “The Beatles” on the bass drum, with the word “beat” emphasized. That is when Arbiter got the idea to stretch the B (up) and the T (down) letters, which made the uniqueness of the logo. Later on, The Beatles logo was refined by designer Eddie Stokes and hand-painted on Ringo’s drum, to reach historical fame.

The Flaming Skull, The Offspring

Recent rock bands also created symbols that are now absolutely recognizables. The flaming skull, The Offspring logo, has become a symbol of the new punk rock wave, materialized by bands such as Green Day or NOFX. 

The flaming skull is a recent logo, it made its first appearance on the “Conspiracy of One” album cover, in 2000. Back then it was the beginning of P2P massive music file sharing, led by P2P software Napster. As opposite to most artist at the time, The Offspring claimed its support to this new digital fashion. Napster t-shirts were even sold at Offspring concerts.

In this context, the skull logo seems to be an adaptation of the Napster logo with a punk look. The circle and the eyes are mostly similar. 

Since then this symbol has become the official Offspring logo as it appears on the latest Greatest Hits in 2005. Several fans even tatooed this logo on their skin, guitar picks are made with the flaming skull on it.

The Asterisk, Red Hot Chili Peppers

In a same way, the red star made popular by Red Hot Chili Peppers is now a famous rock logo.

However, its origin is not very exciting. The logo appears for the first time in the 1989 “Mother’s Milk” album cover. It was designed by singer Anthony Kiedis, as promoters asked him to come up with some logo for the band. Most likely it refers to the symbol of chaos designed in the late 1960’s. It has since then been featured in all RHCP album covers, and especially on t-shirts of the band.

Our journey will be resumed in a further post, in which we’ll talk about “electric logos” (ac/dc, metallica and more…). Meanwhile, take a look at this blog, interestingly dedicated to band logos.

If you are registered to Facebook; check out my quiz about rock logos.

What about you? What are your favourite rock logos?

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